Completely unique wine tasting experience. You can hang out on leather couches or sit at your own dining table. Super chill, great music, and across the board I found the wines really good. Jean was our super smart and gracious host. The nicest in Napa. Great place to stop in for a chill tasting and pick up something special for lunch or dinner.
I had a fantastic experience here. Went during the off season, which helps, as there was no traffic whatsoever. Staff was very helpful, talkative, and positive. Some seriously good Pinot Noirs, as to be expected.
Marilyn “Sarah” Otteman purchased 10 acres in south Santa Clara County's Hecker Pass area in 1977. She began the vineyard with an initial planting of seven acres of Chardonnay. The winery itself was founded 1978. Tim Slater took the helm at Sarah’s Vineyard when he purchased the vineyards and winery in 2001. Tim in his former life has been a DJ, a musician, and a successful “micro-machining” engineer with many patents to his name. He brought a scientific approach to replanting and modernizing S.V., finely balanced by an artist’s sensibility and a traditionalist’s love of the land.
Tim is a very hands-on proprietor. He is both grower and winemaker, constantly experimenting in the vineyard and in the cellar. Tim is often to be found in the tasting room, sharing his latest discoveries with guests.
Claiborne & Churchill is a small, premium family-owned winery located in the Edna Valley of San Luis Obispo. Founded in 1983 by Claiborne (Clay) Thompson and Fredericka Churchill Thompson, former University of Michigan teachers, the couple transitioned from academia to the vineyards of California in 1981 to pursue a new life in the wine industry.
With its first crush, Claiborne & Churchill announced its special focus by producing 565 cases of Dry Riesling and Dry Gewürztraminer, inspired by the fruity but dry dinner wines of the French province of Alsace. Today, Claiborne & Churchill produces about 8,000 cases of wine each year, sourcing grapes from vineyards in the cool maritime valleys of California’s Central Coast and its own small estate vineyards.
Donelan Wines is a journey of quality and passion: for wine, for people, for terroir expressed in a series of Rhone- and Burgundy-inspired Cuvees and Sonoma County single vineyard wines. The Donelan Family of Wines strives to produce pure unadulterated wines that are a pleasure to drink on release and will reward your patience as they age gracefully in your cellar.
Alapay owners Scott and Rebecca Remmenga are passionate about their wines and giving each customer personalized attention within an approachable, relaxing, non-intimidating setting. Alapay does not distribute to wholesalers, restaurants or wine shops, so you will only find these special wines in their seaside wine cellar. They pride themselves on being part of the total wine production process and being "hands-on winemakers".
Tedeschi Family Winery is a great boutique winery to visit and tour. Tedeschi produces approx. 2,000 cases each year. At the time of adding the winery to our California Winery Directory we learned from Stephanie Trotter- Zacaria the Directory or Sales and Marketing that Tedeschi Family Winery took some recent medals for their wines. Congradulations to Emil Tedeschi, vintner & the winery owner, to Emilio Tedeschi the Winery's General Manager and not for forget Mario Tedeschi winemaker. We will be updating the winery in the future and getting a better picture assigned to the listing soon *
Hours:
By Appointment Only
Kosta Browne began as a dream shared by Dan Kosta and Michael Browne. In the summer of 1997, while working at John Ash & Co. restaurant in Santa Rosa, California, Dan and Michael decided to venture into winemaking. They saved tip money for about eight months and eventually had enough to buy a half ton of Pinot Noir, a used barrel and an old hand-crank stemmer-crusher, a purchase that marks the beginning of Kosta Browne. Since that vintage, they have nurtured relationships with the best growers and honed their winemaking skills, making sure to focus on the vision and values with which they began.
Mat Gustafson, the former winemaker at Sebastopol-Dutton Estate Winery and current co-winemaker at Moshin Vineyards, crafts small lots of Pinot Noir and other varietals from the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast under his personal label. Prior to starting his own label, he had worked for twenty years in the restaurant business and in retail sales. Along with business partner, Paul Sloan, he launched the label in 1999, but by 2001 had assumed full control and began to concentrate on Pinot Noir.
Mi Sueno isn't your typical winery. It's located in an Industrial complex in the South of Napa and your tasting is in the chilled storage area of the warehouse. Despite the unconventional setting, the private tasting that I enjoyed here was extremely well done and informative. Jaime gave us a quick tour of the facility and we settled down at a grand wooden table and the pours began. Jaime is quite the story-teller, weaving together the story of the owner and the winery with the explanation for each of the wines. We tried 11 of their wines that day, with very very generous pours of each. My favorites were their 2009 Cab and the 2011 Valeria, a petit verdot, from their reserve line, Herrera, but I was also fond of the 2009 Chardonnay (not too oaky) and 2009 Pinot Noir. Give them a call or shoot them an email and make sure you stop and visit this place. A "Hidden Gem of Napa Valley"!
